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a painter´s attempt to conquer the great white canvas

About

Hi and welcome to my “Art Expedition”!

I´m Sarah and I´m passionate about art, nature, literature and many, many more things. This blog is intended as a journal of my attempt to conquer “the great white canvas” and to become an artist in doing so.

I´m going to post all of my paintings here as soon as they´re finished and will further let you know how exactly they came to be and what they mean to me. This is also going to include some thoughts of mine about the masters that inspired me, or even show you in detail the developing process of one of my paintings.

And because I can not paint as fast as I would love to (alas! There´s never enough time!), I am going to include my drawings, photographs and my creations made from clay as well.

I hope very much that you´ll join me on my art expedition and I look forward to your comments!

Best wishes xxx

If you´d like to contact me, you can do so here on WordPress or send me an email (miss_dragonfly@gmx.de) .

I am so glad I have discovered your blog of art, nature, photography and so much more! Just from reading your posts I can tell from your writing you are passionate about what you do, and you share all that with so much heart on here. So enthralled by your water colour painting and they all look so life-like. Keep painting and I am sure you will go far with it 🙂 I have tried painting before but just was never good at it. In fact, I can’t draw antyhing apart from a stick figure XD I have tried again and again and one day I might just get a bit more better 🙂

Thank you so much, Mabel! 😀
If painting is not the thing for you I could recommend working with clay instead. Even though it might seem more difficult at first, it actually isn’t because you can work in three dimensions instead of just two, which really helps a lot. 😀 Also I believe that everybody can paint, it just takes some time – something most of us struggle the most with what with having to work, social obligations etc. And the most important thing is, to have fun doing it and not caring about the result. Believe me, there are a lot of paintings and drawings that I did in the last years, that I´m so not going to share here! 😉

The closest I got to clay is playing with play dough. Even that didn’t work out very well 😀 I did try drawing some more-than-stick-stick-figures when I was bored at work, and I think there has been a small improvement 😀 I was watching YouTube the other day, and it seems like so many people are following Bob Ross’ painting tutorials – and some of them are really good painters!

Based on your paintings and drawings here, they really are very eye-catching. As for the ones you never share, maybe one day you will revisit them, work some magic on them and turn them into something even better ❤

Watching Bob Ross paint was always one of my favorite pastimes – he was such a lovely and kind man with a great passion for nature and art and inspired millions to discover their creative side as well. Truly inspiring. If you´re interested in an easy way to get into the habit of drawing on a more regular basis I can wholly recommend Danny Gregory´s book “Art before Breakfast”. It helped me a lot during a little painter´s block.

As to the paintings I´m not going to share here – I do keep them and like revisiting them myself from time to time to remind me of how far I´ve come whenever I think I can´t paint!
Keep painting and drawing, Mabel, you´ll soon see how much better you´re going to be! And the most important thing: don’t forget to have fun! ❤

When I have time, I am so going to watch more Bob Ross YouTube videos 😀 That sounds like an inspiring book by Danny Gregory. I will keep it in mind when I’m next looking to buy a book. Thank you so much for the recommendation 🙂

That is so amazing – to keep your works of art and look back on them and see how far you have come. Sometimes I do that with my writings too, writings which I will never show the world. Hope you keep having a lot of fun in what you do too, Sarah 🙂 ❤

I wish you all the best on your endeavor. I am afraid that if people don’t wake up very quickly and protect our environment for the Trumps of this world, there will be no nature to re-create. I shall look forward to seeing your world through your work.

G’day Sarah I see you are following my blog that is nice to know.
I am not posting any more as I am spending more time on other activities.There are plenty of post that you can refer back to in jacks jottings.
Keep active in your art and enjoy that is all that you have to do to be a success. May the, Obe Ben Canobi, force be with you.🙏🏻🐨😎

Thank you for your lovely comment and visit, Jack! I should have paid more attention to the date of your last published post. 😂 But I’m happy for you that you’re enjoying yourself with plenty other activities than blogging these days. 😊 Have a beautiful weekend! 😊 🐨🌺

Hi Sarah,
I’m so glad I found you through Annika! You said that you admire all who can write poetry, well, I feel the same way about those who can draw and paint. I’ve tried, but to no avail. So, I look forward to viewing yours and am already impressed by the bowl and laundry basket. We do have a painter, though, in our family, my nephew (35). He also draws and has been working on exposure of his artwork. He’s been selling items, but he is so talented that I wish he could simply be discovered, if that’s even how it works these days. Anyway, I’m going to peruse now on your site. 💖☺

Hi Lauren,
I´m so glad to too! We really must thank Annika 🙂
It´s exactly the same for me: I tried to write some poetry but utterly failed at expressing myself with words – which is why I found my way to those brushes and paints I guess 😉 And actually I don´t mind it, if I could write lovely poetry there would be no need to make friends with people who do and that would be a very sad thing indeed! 😀
All the best to your nephew! It´s a tough world for artists and nowadays exposing one´s work is much more difficult than it used to be. But using social media is a good way, I think to maybe get discovered some day – well, at least I hope that 😉 💕

Sarah, I’ve seen your name all over the blog world so it’s great we’ve finally connected. We have similar backgrounds – I used to teach art and though I still paint, I’m now focusing on my writing. I’m looking forward to taking a stroll around here to see your art.

Thank you so much for your lovely words, Sharon, and I´m equally delighted to have met you finally! 😀
I know how difficult it is to chose between the two, painting and writing, and for the time being, I will concentrate on the former for now though my mind always cycles around those writing projects too… Looking forward to read more from you!

Sarah, it’s been a real pleasure meeting you here on WP and seeing your creative work..you add the extraordinary to the everyday with deft loving skill and light vibrant colours. Intriguing and I admire your work very much.

Thank you so much, Dolly – or shall I better say: Devorah Yentl? 😉 I look very much forward to discover your blog! 🙂
And how wonderful! Finally asks me about my Gravatar name!! Sadly, I´m not a descendant, and it is not my real name, BUT I chose it for guiding me in my efforts to become maybe one day a marvelous artist just like Artemisia Gentileschi, who´s work I simply adore! 🙂

Thank you, Dolly! 🙂 She was an incredible artist, wasn’t she? I would feel blessed even if I had only 1/8 of her talent! I tell myself that with stubbornness and practice I might eventually get there 😉

Great sight Sara. It will be great fun watching the creations of sights and thoughts through your eyes and words. We had a great opportunity to spend time with a potter in Apalachicola, FL and talk with her about her gift. In fact we did a blog about her within the last week on our site.

Although I can not draw anything even if my life would depend on it – no, no, I am not joking or modest here! But this does not stop me to hang my home with beautiful paintings etc., go to a number of Museums (when in Europe visiting), look at Blogs like yours and others alike, just to see and enjoy! Thank you for allowing me to have a glimpse into your studio. And I see there is a german connection!? Are you in Berlin? – I am following you, Sarah – Tschuess und liebe Gruesse Carina

Thank you so much for your lovely comment, Carina! 🙂
Haha! That´s hilarious! But I do hope that if your life depended on it, you´d be able to draw something! 😉
I´m so glad you enjoy art, it´s one of the most important things in my life and I love seeing people enjoying my little pieces 🙂
Yes, I´m from Berlin 🙂 It´s a great city, and so full of art – have you visited it yet? My guess is that you´re from Heidelberg orginally, since you say university town? 😉 Just looking into your blog – it´s fantastic! I love cooking and trying out new things! I´ll be looking forward to read your posts!!! Wünsch Dir ein wunderschönes Wochenende!!! Liebe Gruesse, Sarah 😀

Not as happy as I am!!! 🙂
And thank you again for your lovely comment! You make me quite blush!
It´s so lovely to meet people who appreciate what you do, isn´t it? I just love reading all those wonderful blogs, and I´m truly glad to have found yours!! 😀

Thank you very much! You´re so kind! 🙂
Oh, I´ve never been taught pottery, I just grabed a piece of clay and got started;) It´s so much fun and I hope you will soon find an opportunity to have a go at it! I´m sure you´ll love it!

Oh, I´m sure you could order it online. But maybe you should start with polymer clay, this can be simply be fired in a normal oven instead of a furnace which you would need for real clay. Some varieties of the polymer clay do even air dry.

I treasure the few that I did of my Husband who always encouraged me in so many ways. After being diagnosed with terminal cancer one of the first things that he did was too create a studio for me. It was a place where I could do all kinds of things and never worry about making a mess!

I wish I´d known your husband, he sounds like a very loving and caring man and I simply can´t imagine what it must feel like to endure such a grave loss. You have my deepest sympathies, Lori. Thinking about how to make you feel better by creating that studio for you while he was confronted with this terrible, terrible illness…that´s simply unbelievable. I´ve never heard of something like this before. Thank you so much for sharing this with me. You do absolutely right by treasuring him and your drawings. Take care, Sarah

Thank you so much!:) Yes, the sculptures are all made of clay, fired at a high temperature and afterwards glazed. I find it challenging and relaxing at the same time, to work with clay as it gives me a somewhat different perspective on art than just drawing or painting would. Love your colourful paintings! Oh, and you´re doing photography as well! I´ve got to drop by this blog, too!:) Have fun being creative! Sarah

Hi! Thank you!! Oh, I´m old enough – 30 and some;) But I started drawing just a couple of months ago and would love to improve my style. I already noticed that the more you draw, the easier it get´s:)
And I´m going to post some more pottery right now!

Hey, you’re welcome. 🙂
definitely, when you draw you train your muscles and your hand. when you try to draw things you are actually seeing, you train you perception. by copying or observing stuff that other people have done, you can learn much about others perception and techniques manipulation.
from what I’ve learned, there are things that come with practice, other that come with time. it’s all about what and how you see. then, you just do it. 😉
***

Yeah, that makes sense:) I already noticed differences in my drawings when sketching something I observe (started last week on sketching statues in a museum, but haven´t posted them yet) or when I come up with some idea – it´s kind of having two different hands! And I love the challenges with difficult perspectives – it shows you more than anything else the distance you need to cover in order to get where you want to be:)

All art work, photographs, stories and texts published on Secret Art Expedition is by me - Miss Gentileschi/Sarah - unless otherwise stated.
The pictures on this site are for my and your pleasure but are copyrighted.
If you would like use a copy of one, please e-mail me.
(You´ll find the adress in the about section.)